A plan to make female high school students in Indonesia undergo yearly virginity tests has received much criticism by activists. It is not the first time that a similar plan has been proposed in Indonesia; earlier plans have been dismissed.

Rohingya women look out from their home in Sittwe’s last remaining Muslim-dominated quarter, which is locked down by police. Residents cannot leave the quarter without obtaining permission, which is almost impossible to secure. Image by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

A flogging sentence against a 15-year-old rape victim for premarital sex in the Maldives has been annulled.

Wakeelah Salaam, a Muslim woman from New Jersey, USA, has filed a lawsuit against a mall, the mall security vendor and the mall guard, who told her to remove her face veil. The lawsuit says she was “intimidated, victimized and subjected to discrimination.”

Tunisia’s oldest women’s organization has been forced into bankruptcy, due to a cessation of funds by the current government, a report says.

The Guardian profiles Madinat Aliyu, the only female car-washer in northern Nigeria.

The Saudi Ministry of Labor has rejected the plea by businessmen to exempt their businesses near the holy Islamic sites from employing women. The businessmen state that their businesses are suffering because of female employees and that women cannot deal with the pressure and special circumstances of working in these areas. The employment of women in stores that sell products predominantly for women has been a difficult transition for many: in Riyadh alone 43 abaya stores have been shut down, because they did not adhere to the new rules.

Another convert-story in the news this week: British glamour model Carley Watts is contemplating to convert to Islam and will move to Tunisia later this year to plan her wedding to a local man.